Where the Suns shine
Rutgers ranks among the top in university supercomputing
Archived article from Nov 12, 1999
By Joseph Blumberg
Rutgers has become a world and national leader in supercomputing power through its recent acquisition of two Sun Micro-systems Enterprise 10000 computers, according to Christine Haska, vice president for institutional research and planning. "We now rank fourth among American university supercomputer sites and 83rd in the world," she said.
The ranking is based on a list of the top 500 sites compiled by a group of high-performance computer experts, computational scientists and manufacturers based at the University of Tennessee and the University of Mannheim in Germany.
"Our new position among the ranks of world supercomputing sites is a milestone on our road to becoming one of the top-ranked public research universities in the nation by the year 2010," said President Francis L. Lawrence.
The two Sun Microsystems computers, res-ponsible for the ranking and valued at more than $7 million, are the first of their kind at any New Jersey college or university. These systems have vast performance and storage capabilities and can perform 100 billion computations each second.
"The speed these supercomputers give us is important in complex problem-solving. We can get the answers back fast enough to make changes and keep the process moving, interacting with the machine as we go," said James Flanagan, vice president for research and director of the Center for Advanced Information Processing (CAIP).
The increased computing capacity means researchers can create computer models of highly complex biological systems or massive physical systems, such as the Earth's weather. They can devise virtual realities that include sight, sound and touch, creating, for example, virtual images of the human body to use in operating rooms and virtual laboratories where students can carry on scientific experiments.
Chemists will benefit from the new computing power as well, as they simulate rapidly changing chemical reactions at the molecular level. Initi-atives in bioinformatics such as the Protein Data Bank will benefit from the speed and power of the new computing system. This international, computer-based, three-dimensional atlas requires high-performance computing to validate the large and complex macromolecules it contains.
"Increased computer speed will allow our project to analyze structure data in real time and to further explore interactions within macromolecular complexes," said Helen M. Berman, professor of chemistry and director of the Protein Data Bank.
The new supercomputing servers will also support RUNet 2000, the project that is creating a data, video and voice communications infrastructure linking all Rutgers campuses and extending high-speed data communications to the university's classrooms, libraries, residence halls, and faculty and administrative offices.
"The RUNet 2000 investment should result in dramatic improvements in both education and research," said Apostolos Gerasoulis, professor of computer science. "The Sun Enterprise 10000 is an ideal computer to support this new network. Rutgers students stand to benefit the most from this, with the potential for greater student-faculty interaction coming out of it. I envision a future where I can hold my undergraduate office hours in front of my workstation, communicating with and advising students in real time in their dorm-itories, saving them time and travel."
"I see this as a good thing for students," said Shakeerah McPherson, a communications major at Douglass College. "With the new network and these powerful new computers, everything will be right there in front of you. You won't have to go all the way to the library. It makes things easier and more convenient, but it's not only benefiting the students -- it's benefiting the whole school as a community."
"Most of the things we do would be enhanced by the speedup this new level of computation can provide," added Flanagan. "It's a matter of getting the answer sooner so you can do more experimentation. This impacts a lot of dimensions in edu-cation, learning and research."
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